The New Orleans Saints want to do some damage. Will they get the top spot in the South? Probably not. Will they compete? Probably. They will be a competent team with the talent to win several games, and with the NFL schedule officially unveiled, some people have realized that the Saints have an opportunity to do something no team has ever done before in the history of the NFL.
The Falcons will play the Saints in Week 1 and Week 15. They will play the Seattle Seahawks in Week 5. They will play the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday Night Football. They get the Baltimore Ravens in Week 9 and the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 17. No team has ever beaten all five teams in the same season.
Some teams are not allowed to run this gauntlet. The team looking to make history has to be in the same conference as the four bird teams. All of the bird teams themselves are disqualified, and each team still in the running can only attempt this feat once every four years since that. I don't know if a team will get lucky enough to face the NFC West that year, but they will have to luck out and finish in the same position as the Eagles or Falcons that previous season. It is a cluster of scheduling miracles falling into place one after the other in order for any team to have this opportunity, but here it stands before the Saints and first-year head coach Dennis Allen.
It happened as recently as 2020. The Dallas Cowboys faced these teams in 16 weeks. The Saints have the privilege of playing the Falcons twice this year, just as the Eagles have the privilege of playing them twice. The Cowboys' quest to go where no team had ever gone before ended in Week 3 when they fell to the Seahawks. They couldn't get through the second bird. It istiful. The NFL has been haunted by the aviary dilemma since its inception.
The cat gauntlet of Jacksonville, Cincinnati, Carolina, and Detroit is practically impossible. If the team wanted to run the gauntlet, they would have to face the final team in the Super Bowl. The Rams beat the Lions and Jags in the regular season last year, but they never had the chance to beat the Carolinas in the playoffs. They did not face the Carolinas in the preseason, so you can rule that out as well.
The Denver Broncos never faced the Jacksonville Jaguars. Since the inception of the Carolina panthers in 1993, every instance of a cat team reaching the Super Bowl has been done without facing the Cincinnati or Lions.
The bird gauntlet will be difficult, given that the Eagles and the Cards made the playoffs in the same year. The Ravens are a great team. It shouldn't be hard for the Saints to get victories against the Falcons and the Seahawks. It will be exhausting. It will be difficult, but it will be history, and I will be there to witness it.
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